About

What is the Swedish Forum for Human Rights?

The Swedish Forum for Human Rights is the biggest annual forum about human rights in the Scandinavian countries. The forum is held in November every year, at various places in Sweden, focusing on a variety of themes concerning human rights. More than 2.000 participants from non-governmental organizations, Universities, businesses and authorities on a central, regional and local level as well as teachers and students from secondary schools and colleges have taken part in various seminars and workshops.

Why a Swedish Forum for Human Rights?

The idea of Human Rights is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. The respect for Human Rights is a foundation for peace, freedom, justice, democracy and sustainable development.

The aims of The Swedish Forum for Human Rights are to discuss challenges in the field of human rights, to put human rights issues higher up on the political agenda and to promote cooperation between civil society organizations, businesses and authorities responsible for protecting human rights. The Swedish Forum for Human Rights is organized by a coalition of Swedish human rights organizations including the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Diakonia, the Academy of Democracy, the association Ordfront, Sensus, the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights, the Church of Sweden, and the University of Gothenburg. The Forum is organized with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Government Offices of Sweden and the Folke Bernadotte Academy.

History

The initiative to create the Swedish Forum for Human Rights was taken in the year 2000 by the association Ordfront, the Academy of Democracy, the Swedish NGO Foundation for Human Rights, the Stockholm School of Theology and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. The idea was to create a meeting place between research and practice concerning Human Rights and to move Human Rights further up on the political agenda.

Since 2004 the Swedish Forum for Human Rights takes place on an annual basis, the location alternating between Stockholm and another Swedish city every second year.